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The Road Less Traveled
By Bob Rixon
They found much that was familiar to them once they got away from the boats and into the neighborhoods. Many of them found friends and relatives who had come before and had gravitated toward the same neighborhoods.
They encountered the reassuring flavors of foods from the old
country. They found the same church and the comforting sound
of a Latin mass - although the Church of that time, like the politicians
and the police, had an an Irish complexion. They found their own
language as long as they stayed close to the neighborhood. They
found clubs and card games, baptisms and weddings, funerals and
feasts. They also found poverty and prejudice as harsh in its
way here as it was in the life they had left behind. They did
not find streets of gold.
They learned very quickly that if they wanted streets of gold, they would have to pave those streets themselves. And this they did, with the skills and trades their own fathers and mothers had taught them - that is, when they could, for trade unionism was still struggling to survive in America. They dug ditches for sewer lines and subways. They baked bread through the night. They painted. They built small houses and skyscrapers. They laid bricks. They carved sides of beef in cold warehouses. They shaped up on the docks at dawn.
They did whatever they had to do to keep a roof over their
heads and feed their families. Yard by yard, mile by mile, they
paved a road for us. It was not a road of gold, but a road of
opportunity. It is never an easy road to travel, but it is far
easier for us to follow it because of what they did.
This issue of Around and About Peterstown is dedicated to them,
the immigrants, and to all who carry on their trades, keeping
alive their skills and their values of hard work,
community and solidarity.